USR“s Bulai: EC representative told us that there are great vulnerabilities in PNRR at the moment

 

"This morning, together with my colleague, Cristian Seidler, I had a meeting, in the joint European Affairs and Budget-Finance Committees, with the European Commission representative who manages the PNRR for Romania and other countries, Celine Gauer. We discussed about where we stand now with the PNRR. There is very important information received within this meeting. First of all, no decision has been taken and no formal request has been sent to change the PNRR, there are big vulnerabilities in the PNRR at the moment with regard to two investment segments: energy and health," Bulai said at the Palace of Parliament.

 

He added that the representative of the European Commission has mentioned that changes can be made to the PNRR in order not to lose funding until 2026, with the note that they must be made now if this is desired.

 

In his turn, USR deputy Cristian Seidler mentioned that European Commission representatives are aware of the draft law initiated by the Government on special pensions.

 

"They were aware of the bill on the so-called reform of special pensions, but also of the amendments in the Senate and they were very clear - in its current form, this law does not correspond to the PNRR milestone. We also asked how much money would Romania lose if the pension reform milestones were not met (... ) Their response was that Romania risks losing billions of EUR if it misses these reforms. However, they hope that Romania can still meet these milestones and receive the money, because it needs this money for reforms and investments. On 31 March, the deadline for the adoption of the new law on contributory pensions expires, and the Government has not even adopted this draft law in the Government meeting. (...) Romania is also in a major delay with the reform of the contributory pension system, not only with the reform of the special pension system," Seidler explained.

 

He mentioned that for the number 2 payment request of the PNRR, the reform of special pensions is requested and the reform of the contributory pension system is requested for the third payment request.